Jeff Perrin was hoping history might have had a way of repeating when he was forced to sit in the Stouffville Arena stands to observe his Stouffville Spirit club play the Trenton Golden Hawks in their Ontario Junior Hockey League game last night.
The last time the Spirit head coach served a suspension this season, his club persevered to win a road game against the Pickering Panthers.
Any good karma Perrin had from that experience did not remain. The East Division-leading Golden Hawks completed a six-game regular season series sweep of the Spirit with a 7-1 thumping.
Peyton Backus got the Spirit off to a good start by scoring the game’s first goal.
But from there, it all went south as Trenton scored the first of three power-play markers in the game to tie the score with just over one minute to play before the first intermission.
The Golden Hawks then added three unanswered goals in the second period to pad their lead to 4-1.
In the third period, the Golden Hawks scored another three goals, including two with the odd-man advantage, on starting goalkeeper Daniel Mannella before he gave way to Braydon Banitsiotis.
Trenton outshot the Spirit 39-31.
“We played good for about one period and a bit of the second and then (Trenton) score a few goals and that was it. We stopped playing,” said Perrin, who delegated the bench duties to assistants Steve Sedore and Brad Barton.
It was the fourth straight loss for the Spirit, the defending OJHL champions.
“(Trenton) get chances to score and they have a veteran team that can finish around the net. And they physically wore us down, they’re a bigger and stronger team than us,” Perrin said.
He refused to use the youth of his roster as an excuse.
Although the Spirit remain in fourth place in the North Division standings with 36 points (10 wins, two overtime wins, three shootout wins, five overtime losses, one shootout loss and 10 losses), they trail the Cobourg Cougars by one point for the eighth and final playoff spot in the North-East Conference standings.
The Spirit hope to get back on the winning track when they host the Kingston Voyageurs Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
With the Spirit winning three of the first four outings against the Voyageurs, Perrin hopes their past success against them will continue.
“(Kingston) are a team that we’ve had some success against in the past. Hopefully that will help us,” he said. “But we’ve got to play a full 60 minutes if we hope to have any chance.”
Perrin also said he intends to go back with Mannella in goal against the Voyageurs.
The Spirit played without Corey DeRose, who has a hand injury and is expected to remain sidelined for one to two weeks, along with Mike Stevens and Matt Dunlop, each out with the flu and are listed as day to day.
Former Spirit goalkeeper Knick Dawe was named the OJHL’s Gongshow Gear Goaltender of the Month for December, the league announced Wednesday.
Dealt to the Georgetown Raiders as part of a five-player deal that included forwards Alex Botten and Jacob Bauchmann for Stevens and Mannella, Dawe finished December with a 5-0-1 record, including a sparkling 1.81 goals against average during the month.
The six-foot, 180-pound Penetang native’s stay with the Raiders was brief as he was recently signed by the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League.
During his time with the Raiders and Spirit, Dawe’s record was 13-6-6 with a 2.94 goals against average and .916 save percentage.
He also earned a spot for the second consecutive year on the OJHL North Division All-Star Team at the Central Canada Cup All-Star Challenge in Wellington during the Christmas holiday break.
He missed the tournament, however, after officially signing with the Sting.